Walk through log
Today's hike is in the Grant Grove of Sequoia in King's Canyon National Park. Nearby wildfires provide hazy and smoky conditions today. Most of Kings Canyon National Park is closed due to unhealthy levels of smoke. Our hike starts with a look at General Grant Tree, the second largest living thing on earth. The tree has a significant fire scar at its base. As with General Sherman Tree, it is fenced off. Most all other trees can be approached and touched.
Bench made from one piece of wood
General Grant Tree
Our walk took us through a grove of mature Sequoias and then to a rocky overlook of Lake Sequoia on National Forest property. There were inholdings nearby, owned by various organizations with group camps on them.
Sequoia pine cones
Trees can have over 10,000 cones on it at any given time. With about 230 seeds per cone, a tree can produce a bunch of seeds. The cones mature in a year to a year and one half. They can remain green for 20 years. These in my hand were very hard, like metal although not that heavy.
Giant Sequoia seedling
Some areas has hundreds of these seedlings. The needles look very much like Eastern red Cedar.
Fire rings
Fires occur, on average, every 13 years over the life span of these trees. The trees will scar due to fire. The fire wound eventually closes up as a flesh wound would on a human. You can see how this tree healed itself after fires and became somewhat deformed in shape. Often, the growth rings leading up to a fire are tightly spaced and then following the fire, have wide growth rings. This indicates the tree benefited from the fire by eliminating nearby competing trees.
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